Choose rejects spiritual discrimination declare on pandemic mortgage

Gordon Faculty might be pressured to repay a $7 million Paycheck Safety Program mortgage issued throughout the coronavirus pandemic after a decide largely rejected arguments that it ought to be eligible for mortgage forgiveness and was going through spiritual discrimination, Christianity At present reported.

Gordon, a non-public, evangelical establishment situated exterior Boston, obtained a PPP mortgage throughout the pandemic that school directors imagine ought to be eligible for forgiveness, since its officers say it employed fewer than 500 staff on the time of the mortgage utility.

Gordon Faculty counted 495 full-time-equivalent staff in its mortgage utility. Nonetheless, the faculty had self-reported 639 complete staff in different submitted mortgage paperwork. That distinction seems to run afoul of how the Small Enterprise Administration counts staff.

When the SBA denied a request for mortgage forgiveness, Gordon sued the company.

Gordon has argued that 25 different establishments counted staff in the identical method and subsequently had loans of comparable and even larger quantities forgiven. However final month a federal decide rejected that declare, writing that the faculty “provides no details to help its conclusory allegation that these 25 different schools are equally located—a lot much less equally located in all respects besides spiritual affiliation.” The decide additionally wrote there was no proof to indicate that SBA’s strategies of tallying staff “have been enacted to focus on or single out” spiritual establishments.

Gordon Faculty attorneys have additionally argued that the SBA didn’t make clear how staff ought to be counted till after the establishment obtained its PPP mortgage. Whereas a federal decide rejected the spiritual discrimination argument final month, a part of the faculty’s lawsuit in opposition to the SBA stays intact.